Barbara+Shelgren

On January 22, 1900, Mrs. Barbara Shelgren, age 25, died at Augustana Hospital in Chicago of an abortion performed that day.

Paulina Bechtel, identified as a midwife, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury and indicted of homicide by a grand jury, but the case was thrown out by Judge Holdom.

Bechtel was tried in the October 3, 1895 abortion death of Mrs. Kittie Bassett. She was implicated in the abortion death of Ida Henry in 1900, but was identified as a physician in that case. According to Leslie Reagan, author of // When Abortion Was a Crime //, it was common for female physicians to be misidentified as midwives. Therefore I am going to assume that Bechtel was indeed a [|doctor]. Bechtel went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

This would make Barbara's abortion typical of pre-legalization abortions.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see [|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Source:[|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]

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